


Nighttime Investigations

by tinytrash575



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Feelings, Friendship/Love, Lydia-centric, Post 5B, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 15:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11062143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinytrash575/pseuds/tinytrash575
Summary: Stiles drags Lydia out of bed in the middle of the night to investigate his supernatural hunches, but Lydia is pre-occupied with trying to control her feelings for him, which are stronger than ever. Post 5B-Pre 6A.





	Nighttime Investigations

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to know what happened on all of their middle of the night supernatural investigations that Lydia mentioned at the start of 6A, so I ended up writing this. I may write more of these investigations depending on if I get any more ideas. Enjoy.

The repetitive buzzing got louder and louder, pulling Lydia slowly out of a peaceful sleep. She blinked as her eyes adjusted, hazily registering that the constant buzzing sound was her cell phone. A groan of frustration hummed in her throat as she forced her eyes open for long enough to look at the caller ID. It was Stiles. A jolt of panic rushed through Lydia as she examined the name lighting up her screen once more, wondering what reason he could possibly have for calling her at 2:12 in the morning. What if something had happened? What if he was having nightmares again? It wasn’t exactly as if midnight calls had been a regular occurrence between the two of them recently.

“Hey, Lyds,” she heard him say as soon as she accepted the call.

“What’s up?” she asked immediately, her brain filling with more worrying scenarios as her focus became clearer. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he answered, sounding mildly confused. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because the last time we called each other in the middle of the night was when neither of us were sleeping,” she explained, her voice taking a solemn tone as memories of that time flooded her, creating a dull ache in her chest.

“Well I’m okay,” Stiles reassured her, his voice a touch softer. A second’s pause passed between them down the phone, during which Lydia assumed that he was reflecting on that time in their life just as she had been. That felt like such a long time ago now, so much had happened since then. “I need your help though.”

“With what?” she asked, fighting the protests of her burning eyes. “And why do you need my help at two in the morning?”

“Look out your window,” he answered.

Lydia sat up in bed, turning around and rising onto her knees as she leant against the headboard to look out of the window. The front lawn outside was submerged in total darkness, but there was a blinding source of light at the bottom of her driveway. She blinked rapidly, adjusting to the shining light outside, and then she saw him. The shining light at the bottom of her driveway was Stiles’ Jeep, and there he stood, waving up at her with a take away coffee cup in his hand.

“Stiles,” she said, staring at him out of the window as he stopped waving, confusion flooding her somewhat fuzzy thoughts. “Please tell me why you’re outside my house at two in the morning waving a cup of coffee at me.”

“It’s hot chocolate actually,” he replied, and Lydia could tell from his voice that he was smiling. Subtle warmth started to spread in her chest when she pictured it, but the more rational part of her brain snuffed that warmth out and reminded her that it was the middle of the night and her body still wanted to sleep, no matter how cute his smile was. “And I need your help with something. I like, just told you that.”

“Well forgive me if I’m not at my sharpest, it’s two in the morning,” she responded, making sure that her tone conveyed the fact she was not impressed with being woken up in the middle of the night with no explanation. She could already feel a growing annoyance with him forming as her body begged her to go back to sleep.

“So are you coming down here or not?” Stiles asked after a few moments of silence. Lydia blinked in frustration and disbelief.

“You haven’t even-” she started to protest, but he cut her off.

“And put on something warm, it’s freezing out,” he instructed her. Lydia let out an irritated sigh, pushing her hair back from her face.

“Stiles,” she said loudly, commanding his attention before he started rambling and her side of the conversation ended up being drowned out. “I didn’t even agree to help you. You haven’t even told me what it is that I’m supposed to be helping you with.”

“I’ll tell you when you get down here,” he replied confidently. Lydia closed her eyes with growing exasperation, reminding herself to take a breath. Of course he couldn’t just make this easy for her and tell her what he wanted her help with at a completely ridiculous time of night when she was in the middle of sleeping. She’d forgotten how utterly infuriating Stiles could be.

“So are you coming?” he asked, eagerness for her answer clear in his voice. Lydia sucked in a breath. She couldn’t believe she was doing this.

“Give me ten minutes,” she replied, already climbing out of bed.

“You’re the best Lyds,” Stiles responded enthusiastically, hanging up right after. Lydia let out a frustrated sigh, begrudgingly regarding the tingling warmth blossoming in her chest over his words. She’d questioned many times in the past few minutes why she was about to agree to go out there and meet him at two in the morning, but she already knew the answer.

Lydia shuffled around her room in the dark, throwing on the first things she could find. Her body was still fighting her, telling her to go back to bed, and she mentally cursed as she got herself ready. She cursed Stiles and these frustrating feelings she had for him, wishing that they’d never sprung loose from the box she neatly packed them into and then shoved at the back of her mind when she knew that nothing could happen between the two of them.

Once she was ready, Lydia snuck quietly out of the house and walked down the driveway to meet Stiles. He was leaning against the side of the Jeep waiting for her, sipping one of the take away hot chocolates. He handed her the other one, apologising in advance for its crappy quality.

“Alright,” she said, letting the warmth of the hot chocolate in her hands help her adjust to the freezing night temperature. “So what are we doing?”

“It’s more of a where are we going,” Stiles replied, taking another sip of hot chocolate. Anger and disbelief erupted inside Lydia. He woke her up to take her on a trip to god knows where in the middle of the night, was he serious? Her lips formed a thin line as she thought of the best way to vent her frustration.

“Are you kidding me?” she whispered harshly, taking in another steady breath. “You dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night to go on a car ride.”

“Well there’s a ‘what are we doing?’ in there too,” Stiles explained, gesturing with his hands. Lydia couldn’t help but find his movements charming, even if she was incredibly annoyed with him. Damn these feelings. “But we kinda need to do the ‘where are we going?’ bit first.”

“So,” she said, taking a sip of the hot chocolate. He was right, it was crappy. “What is the ‘what are we doing?’ part?”

“Investigating a missing person’s case,” Stiles explained quickly, wincing a little as he anticipated her reaction. Lydia felt her chest flush with even more irritation.

“Stiles!” she exclaimed, angry heat spreading through her veins. Of course they were going to investigate missing person’s case in the middle of the night, of freaking course. It was probably from a file he stole off his dad’s case pile because he didn’t think enough was being done so he just had to take matters into his own hands. God, he was so predictable.

“Someone went missing on the outskirts of the woods and I think it might be supernatural,” he explained, his breath appearing in front of him in thick clouds. “I’ve been doing some research.”

“You seriously need a new hobby,” she told him, rolling her eyes before taking another sip of the crappy hot chocolate. “And why ask me anyway? Why not take Scott?”

“Because I need your banshee-ness,” Stiles explained, waving the hand that wasn’t holding the cup around in circles.

“Oh,” Lydia groaned, knowing where this was going. “So we’re looking for a dead body.”

“Maybe,” Stiles responded, grimacing a little. “Possibly.” Lydia closed her eyes in exasperation and defeat.

“Why did I agree to this?” she sighed, despite being painfully aware of the answer.

“Because you can’t resist my puppy dog eyes,” Stiles replied, a playful hint to his voice that made Lydia’s heart skip, much to her chagrin. She stepped away from him, indicating that she was ready to get in the Jeep, but really she just didn’t want his eyes on her face right now. Even in the faint light from the Jeep he could have probably seen the flush in her cheeks.

“No,” she teased as she walked across the front of the Jeep. “It definitely wasn’t that.”

“Ouch, Lyds. That hurts,” called Stiles from the driver’s side as Lydia got in the car, opening his door. “My puppy dog eyes are personally offended.” He jumped in the driver’s seat, pulling the door closed behind him.

“I’m sure they’ll get over it,” Lydia replied, shooting him a smile as he put the keys in the ignition and buckled his seatbelt.

The drive to wherever they were going was relatively quiet, which Lydia was immensely grateful for. The last thing she wanted to be doing was talking to him alone in an enclosed space. She had set herself rules. Ever since Stiles saved her life by breaking her out of Eichen House, the feelings that she had for him had burst back to life with a fervour that Lydia wasn’t quite sure she appreciated. She’d shoved them deep down and buried them in a box when she first realised they were there, because he was with Malia and she knew it was pointless to dwell on them if nothing was going to happen between the two of them, but now that he and Malia had broken up things were different.

She told herself that she wouldn’t outright make a move on him until enough time had passed and it wouldn’t hurt Malia, but he was making it very difficult. She tried to keep it under control, hiding how warm and happy she felt around him, how much he made her blush, catching herself when she found her eyes lingering on him for a second too long. Sometimes she did a better job than others, and right now she was not doing a very good job at all.

It wasn’t long before Stiles parked the car. They both got out, the icy winter air hitting Lydia like a slap in the face. She welcomed the cold, hoping it would sober her up and stop her thinking about Stiles. She could already feel it cooling the heat in her cheeks. She felt relieved.

The air around them was pitch black and Lydia could barely see the Jeep in front of her. Stiles turned on a flashlight, holding the light out in front of him until the beam fell on Lydia. She edged around the side of the Jeep to meet him, the heels of her boots crunching against the gravel. Once Lydia was stood in front of Stiles he shone the light down at her feet, finding the black suede boots.

“What are on your feet?” he asked, his tone more suited to if she were wearing a pair of oversized clown shoes.

“Shoes,” she responded sarcastically. “Look, you’re wearing them too.”

“Hilarious,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes. “No, I meant why are you wearing those shoes?” irritation flooded Lydia’s chest.

“They were the first ones I could find,” she replied, her voice high with frustration. “It’s not like you told me we were going roaming around in the woods, you just showed up and told me to come help you.”

“Could you keep your voice down,” Stiles whispered harshly, shining the flashlight to his left. “You might alert any supernatural predators to our location.” Lydia sucked in a breath. If he didn’t shut up soon, supernatural creatures were going to be the least of his problems.

“But seriously,” she continued, eager to let him know why she was so annoyed. “How did you expect me to know what was appropriate footwear when you didn’t even tell me what we were doing.”

“Okay, you’re right,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Lydia replied, content at his sincerity pulsing through her.

“So just hold my hand,” he continued.

“What?” Lydia stammered.

Panic whirled around in her mind as her heartbeat picked up the pace. No, she thought. No no no no no. This was the exact opposite of what she needed right now. This was the exact opposite of having control. Lydia’s eyes fixed on him, hoping that he wouldn’t detect her inner turmoil if she kept eye contact.

“Hold my hand,” Stiles repeated. Lydia stepped closer to him as she sensed an explanation coming.

“We’re about to go searching through uneven ground covered in bumps and roots and holes and those shoes are dangerous,” He began rapidly, each word spilling out faster than the previous one as he swung the flashlight towards her feet. “Best case scenario, you fall on your ass, maybe sprain an ankle.  But the worst case scenario is you could snap your neck and die and I am not prepared to let you die on me in the middle of the woods, goddamn it, so just hold my hand.” He extended his hand towards her, shining the torch between them so she could see it.

“Fine,” Lydia groaned, walking over to him and grabbing his hand as they started towards the woods. She tried to forget the bolt of lightning that had shot through her when their hands had touched and how surprisingly soft his hand was, how warm her hand felt in his. She was thankful for the darkness, because it meant that he couldn’t see the smile she was fighting to suppress. As soon as the ground beneath them moved from gravel to uneven woodland she gripped his hand tighter, already feeling unsteady. Lydia silently raged over the fact he’d been right about the terrain, and over just how much she was enjoying holding his hand.

They moved slowly through the woods, Stiles a few paces in front with the flashlight in his hand, shining it in front of them, and Lydia a few steps behind using Stiles’ grip on her to keep herself balanced. There were a few mishaps where Lydia almost fell over because her heel got caught on a root or the ground was too uneven so her ankle gave way under the heel, resulting in a lot of hissed cursing, but each time Stiles steadied her again. He made the occasional remark about the shoes, but promptly stopped when Lydia told him that if he even dared to say ‘I told you so’ she would take the boots off and use the heels to skin him alive.

Aside from the near falls, however, Lydia was enjoying the walk. They didn’t really talk to each other, as Stiles insisted on silence in case there was something in the woods. Lydia bit back the sarcastic remarks she had floating around in her head over the fact that if there really was something in the woods with them, it would have probably already heard their breathing so his concern was redundant. Regardless of anything else, she was simply enjoying walking along and holding his hand. It felt comfortable, natural. Their hands seemed to fit perfectly together, and once her treacherous heart had stopped fluttering over the fact they were holding hands, it actually felt very calming. Lydia felt safe, reassured. They’d been walking in silence for what must have been an hour before Stiles spoke.

“Sensing any dead bodies yet?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

“Nope,” Lydia replied in an undoubtedly bored tone. She knew they weren’t going to find anything, and she’d had been so wrapped up in the fact they were holding hands that she’d forgotten the completely ridiculous reason they were out here. She felt suddenly very frustrated with herself. She’d been letting her feelings get in the way of rationality again.

“Maybe we’re moving in the wrong direction,” Stiles continued, shining the flashlight to his right and looking along the beam of light. Lydia rolled her eyes.

“Or maybe there’s nothing here,” she countered, her voice a harsh whisper. The niggling frustration she felt started to expand, diffusing through her. “Maybe you shouldn’t just research anything that sounds like it might have a vaguely supernatural explanation and then drag people out in the middle of the night to investigate your ridiculous hypotheses.”

“Nothing has happened in weeks Lydia,” Stiles argued, struggling to keep the flashlight in a straight line as he spoke. “It’s suspicious.”

“Only to you,” Lydia responded, fighting back the urge to audibly groan. Why, of all the people she could have fallen in love with, did her heart have to choose someone so exasperatingly stubborn. She pictured the growing flame of  irritation burning fiercely in her chest and imagined snuffing it out, exhaling the leftover smoke in a long breath. “I thought we had this conversation last year.”

“Yeah, and look how that turned out,” Stiles replied, his tone bitterly sarcastic. An uncomfortable feeling exploded inside Lydia. She didn’t want to be reminded of that time and the awful places that it took both of them to.

“Just because you were right then doesn’t mean you’re right now,” said Lydia, the hot frustration in her voice mangled by sadness.

“Yeah well maybe I don’t want to take that risk again,” Stiles said defensively. The bitterness from his voice was gone but there was an ugly tone of flatness to it that Lydia had become so familiar with that it sat uncomfortably in her stomach. She sighed.

“But this isn’t the same,” she explained, using a much softer approach. “This isn’t something that’s affecting you personally, this is you going out of your way to-” Lydia’s train of thought was yanked from her consciousness as the hand that was holding Stiles’ went speeding forwards, pulling the rest of her body with it. She let out a surprised scream as she flew towards the ground, Stiles’ arms grabbing her roughly and catching her before she could hurtle any further into the darkness.

She wrapped her arms tightly around what she realised were Stiles’ shoulders, panting with the shock of what had happened as Stiles held her body against his. Lydia tried to focus on her breathing, allowing her mind to catch up with her body as she realised that Stiles had obviously fallen down a small hole and taken her with him.

She couldn’t see anything. Stiles had dropped the flashlight in the fall and now they were bathed in total darkness. Although Lydia didn’t need the light to know how close they were. She could feel his breath on her neck, warm and shallow, creating a frustratingly pleasant tingling sensation every time it brushed her skin. Her nerves felt electric, buzzing from the shock and the heat where their bodies were pressed together. They sparked and crackled whenever his cheek briefly pressed against hers. Lydia realised how close their faces were, even though she couldn’t see a thing. It would be so easy to just move her head to the side and let her lips find his. She could feel herself aching to do it, a raging desire forming deep in the pit of her stomach. The temptation was so strong that she had to bite the inside of her cheek, focusing on the pain and not the traitorous heat flushing through her body. Lydia barely even registered that her feet weren’t on the ground until Stiles gently deposited her back on the unsteady woodland.

“See, I told you,” said Stiles, laughing nervously. “Bumps and holes everywhere.” Lydia could just about see the whites of his eyes in the dark. She focused her attention on them, feeling another jolt of electricity shoot through her.

“Yeah,” she replied, her voice a shaky whisper. They held onto each other for a second longer before quickly letting go, Stiles mumbling something about picking up the flashlight.

Lydia brought her hand up to her cheek, touching the somehow simultaneously cold but flushed skin there. She let out a long, shaky breath as Stiles hunted around on the forest floor for the flashlight, hoping she was doing it quietly enough that he couldn’t hear her irregular breathing. That was too close, Lydia thought as the cold air seeped into her body, her lips still tingling from how close they were to his.

“Got it,” announced Stiles. Lydia turned towards his voice as the small beam of light came closer in the darkness. Their eyes met when he got close enough that they could both see each other in the light from the flashlight, focusing on each other briefly before they both looked away. Lydia was still staring at the expanse of total darkness when Stiles cleared his throat, the sound startling Lydia as she looked down to find him holding his hand out to her. She took it silently and they continued walking, the heat that Lydia hoped had disappeared making an unwelcome return.

They walked along in silence, no sign of anything out in the woods other than the two of them. Lydia wondered what time it was, if she had any hope of getting any more sleep before she had to be up in the morning, it felt like they’d been out there for hours. Or maybe that was just her feeling like it was longer than it was because this was the exact opposite of a desirable situation if she was going to stick to her rules. She hoped this wasn’t going to become a regular occurrence, otherwise the trouble she was having adhering to them now would probably multiply. After about another half hour of walking, Stiles suddenly stopped, causing Lydia to almost walk into him.

“You were right,” he said, a disappointed tone to his voice. “There’s nothing out here. Let’s go back to the Jeep.”

“Finally,” Lydia sighed with relief, gently tugging on his hand to turn him around so they could walk back to the edge of the woods.

The walk back to the Jeep seemed quicker than the walk out into the woods did, and this time nobody fell down any holes. When they reached the edge of the woods and Lydia felt the rough ground morph into smooth gravel she nearly audibly gasped in relief. Her feet were absolutely killing her.

“Hey Lyds,” said Stiles softly as they made their way to the Jeep. “I’m sorry, for dragging you all the way out here.” Lydia shook her head, the defeated tone of his voice tugging at her heart.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied quietly, looking up and giving him a warm smile. She watched his eyes fall to her mouth and then back up to her eyes as he smiled back at her.

“I’ll take you home now,” he said, and for a split second disappointment spiked through Lydia. She caught herself, chastising the fact that she still felt disappointed to go home despite the fact she’d been desperate to get back to bed the whole time they’d been out here. She was in way too deep, she needed to sort this out.

“Thanks,” she responded, trying to quell the swirling of emotions inside of her.

It occurred to her then, that they were still holding hands even though they were now stood at the side of the Jeep. Lydia wanted to be the first to let go, but she didn’t seem to know how. Their eyes met, and their hands quickly separated, Lydia flashing a thin smile before moving around to the passenger side door. As she got in and buckled up her seatbelt, she let out a quiet exhale. Tonight had been everything she’d told herself not to do, but she knew that this was too strong for her to fight. She just needed to get better at reining her feelings until the time was right.


End file.
